American Family Farmer

CELESTE LONGACRE lives in Nashua, NH and is a radio personality, author, professional speaker and astrologer for The Old Farmer's Almanac. She is also author of “Visitor’s Guide to The Planet Earth, an Astrological Primer.” Celeste will also be doing gardening, canning, freezing, etc. workshops at her home this summer. Her charts in The Old Farmer’s Almanac are based on the Moon’s sign and shows t...

SALLY FALLON MORELL is someone that I met, several years back, at the “Raw Milk Symposium” in Wisconsin. Her lifelong interest in the subject of nutrition began in the early 1970s when she read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price traveled the world over studying healthy primitive populations and their diets. Sally applied the principles of Dr. Price’s research to the feeding of...

JULIE KELLY is a cooking instructor, food writer, blogger and a Mom who lives in the Chicago area. In 2015, she got passionate about GMOs. Kelly is a contributing writer to the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Huffington Post, The Hill and other media outlets. While science and farming communicators struggle with how to best educate consumers and the media, organic executives and celebrities...

MITCH HUNTER is a PhD candidate at Penn State, in agronomy working with Dr. David Mortensen to develop ecologically sound farming systems that are productive, economical, and workable for farmers. He is also pursuing a minor in ecology.  His current research focuses on using cover crops to improve cropping system productivity, sustainability, and resilience in the face of challenging climatic cond...

EILEEN GORDON is an entrepreneur, farmer and the founder of BARNRAISER, along with business partner and husband, Chef Michael Chiarello. Her journey to sustainable food and farming, as well as passion for kids education, came from her farming family in Northern California, long-time swiss dairy ranchers and now cheesemakers. An indirect path from Apple's education group to the Napa Valley leads to...

BARB SHATTO runs the Shatto Milk Company with her husband, Leroy. She grew up on a family farm, and even though she has a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, she always knew that the farm was the place for her. SHATTO MILK COMPANY is a small family-owned and operated dairy farm, with 350 Holstein cows, located just north of the Kansas City metrop...

DR. DICKSON D. DESPOMMIER is an emeritus professor of microbiology and Public Health at Columbia University. From 1971-2009, he conducted research on intracellular parasitism and taught courses on parasitic diseases, medical ecology and ecology. In recent years, he has received considerable media coverage for his ideas on vertical farming. He developed the concept over a 10-year period with gradua...

ROBIN AND MARK WAY own and operate Rumbleway Farm, a 62 acre certified organic farm located in Cecil County, Maryland. Robin has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology, and formerly worked in the DuPont Pharaceutical-lab. Mark has a Bachelor of Science, in Biology, and formerly worked for DuPont Pharmaceutical’s - lab research on inflammatory diseases and safety.                                 T...

AUDRA MULKERN is a cook, writer, photographer and a podcaster, who lives in a farming community. She noticed the face of the farmers in her own community was starting to change as more and more women were applying to become interns. Today, she is putting good food in the spotlight and changing the way you look at farming and the food on your plate. THE FEMALE FARMER PROJECT documents the rise of w...

ALLEN LASH is President and CEO of AgriSolutions, Inc. and CEO of FamilyFarms Group. He is a widely recognized leader in the area of future agriculture direction, business and management structures, and financial management for agriculture. Mr. Lash was an early leader in the Farm Financial Standards Council, with commodity associations such as the National Pork Producers Council and the Corn and...

ROGER JOHNSON has been President of The National Farmers Union since 2009. Prior, he was a third-generation family farmer from Turtle Lake, ND, where he also served as North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner since 1996. SOME TALKING POINTS: 1.   U.S. farm policy already favors Big Business. Will it get worse under Trump? 2.   Ten food trends that will shape 2017 Trend 1: Silicon Valley & Food Trend...

Meghan and Ross Nichols are an energetic, hardworking couple who own and operate High Hopes Farm on a beautiful 120ish-acre piece of land in Bristol, Maine. The couple purchased the farm earlier this summer, and already have a small, thriving operation. They both grew up in the area, and didn’t even consider looking at other farms because they knew they wanted to stay in their community. When they...

Johnny Fonteyn is a former chef, and his wife Elizabeth Del Negro, a former educator. They are in their 30’s, and now are full-fime farmers. They started with an 8-acre farm, just north of Los Angeles, in Ojai (PM: O-HI), California, which was formerly a minimum-security prison. Today, they grow vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers on three different farms. The farm is known as Rio Gozo. "Gozo" is...

Hanson's Farm has been a working farm since 1715, farmed for almost 200 years. In 1908, Matthew Hanson got the opportunity to rent the fifty acre farm and loved it, finally purchasing it in 1913 after which it officially became Hanson 19s farm. His grandson Tom eventually took over, and began concentrating on the farm stand and adding things such as upick, hayrides and other things. To bring famil...

Jana Linderman is President of The Iowa Farmers Union. She grew up on a family farm in North Dakota and is the 4th generation to work in her family 19s farming operation. As a beginning farmer, she works with her parents raising spring wheat, small grains and non-GMO food-grade soybeans that are direct marketed to processors in Japan. Her long-term goal for the farm is to transition to organic pro...

Sharon Caswell is the founder and CEO of PonyUP Technologies, and has been a life-long horse owner. She currently has two horses and rides as often as possible. Pony Up Technologies was founded on the simple desire to make life better for horses and their handlers. Their products give equine professionals a better way to manage the health and conditioning of their horses. The objective is to bring...

Kriss Marion is a former Easterner and Journalist from Chicago. Kriss and her husband Shannon, own the Circle M Market Farm and B&B, in Lafayette County. She is the founder of her local farmers 19 market in Blanchardville, Wisconsin. Even though Kriss is a first-generation 1cniche 1d farmers, she always vowed she 19d never do a farmers 19 market. She got into farming because she liked playing in t...

Marc Santucci is the owner of Santucci Farm, in Travers City, MI. He says a Federal Regulation has forced him to let 40-thousand perfectly-good tart cherries go to waste. There is nothing wrong with the cherries, but the regulation requires him to dump them, to allow the import of 200-million pounds of cherries from overseas. Santucci said that tart cherries imported from Turkey and Eastern Europe...

The Farrell Family has transformed Sunset Farm into a local icon in Narragansett. It is the last of its kind in the south-end of Narragansett, being the last working farm in the area. The Farrell Family works pasturing a herd of 100 head of Black Angus beef cattle, born and raised right on the farm. Sunset Farm prides itself on the fact that their beef cattle never leave the state of Rhode Island....

Mark Schneider is a former firefighter who turned full-time grower after he helped his in-laws, Kevin and Denise Kilgus, convert their truck farming operation into Living Water Farms. He is now President and CEO of the farm. LIVING WATER FARMS is owned and operated by the Kilgus/Schneider families. It is a small sustainable family farm, focused on growing the highest quality specialty greens and m...

Freddy Hill Farms began as a dairy store in 1972. The milk is processed and packaged right on the farm, and then sold in the dairy store. To complement the dairy sales, dipped ice cream is also offered to customers. After learning how to make their own ice cream at Penn State University's creamery, the Seipts expanded their ice cream offerings and began making ice cream cakes. The ice cream sales...

Stacy and Tenzin Botsford are first generation farmers who are dedicated to the idea that caring for the land and growing high quality organic food can be mutually beneficial for the farm, the farmer, and the community. Their goal was to regain their relationship to the land and to the food that we eat, while helping to revitalize small farms in Central Wisconsin. This summer, they are embarking o...

Roger Allison and Rhonda Perry raise cattle and grain on his farm in rural Missouri. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and Patchwork Family Farms. The Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) is a statewide farm and rural membership organization founded in 1985 with over 5600 member families. Their mission is to preserve family farms, promote stewardship...

Jesus Cuezzi grew up in Waukegan, IL and was introduced to farming after his junior year in high school. He applied for a summer job with the Green Youth Farm, in Lake County, and worked with 25 other teenagers, planting, maintaining and harvesting the produce in this 1.5 acre plot. He returned to the farm for a second season, but this time as a crew leader. This is when his aptitude for farming s...

Andrea Hazzard grew up on the family farm. She remembered as a child, the wooden bins of grain in the barn and in the loft of the corn crib, the heavy, silken feeling of them as you thrust your arm in, the dust in the air as the sun streamed through the window. She would go to the corn crib with her grandfather Earl Hazzard and choose a few ears of corn, shell them in the sunshine then trundle acr...